Wichita eagle., 1887-11-24
NEW YORK TENEMENT SCENES.
The History of One Block-Evo1ution G


The History of One Block-Evo1ution of
Tough-A Landlord.
Could the history of this single block be
| written, say for the past year, it would make
strong men turn faint. Women in the agonies
Of child birth On the bare fcor, with the
stencil from eesspools rising unchecked to
greet the new born infants, children of ten
der years cooped up in narrow cells with
those suffering from contagious diseases; little
ones going blind with the terrible infectious
ophthalmia which runs riot through the
poorer quarters, the sick and the aged turned
out into the street for daring to complain of
their vile quarters-in short, a thousand ter
rible happenings to make people wonder if
there is God in heaven. Let it not be sup
posed that all of these houses are bad. Some
the greater part perhaps-are to be classed
as good in themselves, but all are contami
mated by the bad ones, and the best suffer
from the outrageous, illegal, inexcusable
overcrowding.
Suppose you were born in q rotten tene-
ment, would not you be tough. Ten to one
that you would. Scarcely out of your mothers
arms you would find the whole world against
you. Your father, if you had one claiming
the title, would get SO sick Of his nasty sur
roundings that he would rush out and accept
inebriation relief, then he would come
home end kick and beat you. Older com
panions would bully you, teach you to swear
and steal, stump" you in the neck when op-
portunity offered. AS you grew up evil COM
panions would cleave to you. No good in
fuences would touch your poor little life.
You would have to shun the filthy home and
seek the solace of the beer saloons. You
would learn all things evil and learn to judge
evil as good. You would be a tough just as
soon as nature allowed you TO. But the land
lord is not to blame, his apOlogists say. He
makes place for people to live in that they
perforce shun. II drives them to rum holes
as to a refuge Yet the landlord is not to
blame
Here's a lovely place for civilized city
the best city in the world. Filthy Railways,
cellars with low ceilings and damp floors,
bedrooms without ventilation save what
comes through the doorways, and those on
the top floors having no ventilation. These
are the delightful apartments which are sup
posed to hatch out the creme de la creme of
inhabitants. Here is one of them recently
looked up: She is a 25-year-old widow, comes
from Germany and has been six years in this
country. She is a laundress. Maximum
wages 50 a week; minimum, fifty cents. No
other honest resources. Two children, aged
, years and Is months Rent of two rooms,
81 per month. The bedroom is perfectly dark,
the only light in it entering by the door.
There is no window save into the hall. The
young widow is extremely pale and nervous.
She suffers from frequent attacks of rheuma-
tisn. And she is put down Us immoral
Think of i'll A woman enjoying these luxu-
ries immorall How perverse is human nature!
The house is full of Italians 1t is never
cleaned unless by the tenants. The privies
are never cleaned. And two innocent chill
dren, with such a mother, have got to grow
up and face the world if they do not die in
the growing.
The landlord who owns big tenement on
Batavia street has had put up sign saying:
mo bail playing or other games in this yard.
No lounging, and nobody but tenants allowed
in the yard" As tenement house boy re-
marked recently: I'm tired Of hvin'. There's
no place to 20; there's no place to play; there's
no use in havin' holiday, anyway. If you
play ball in the park the cop chases you Off;
If you play ball in The street you get arrested.
I'm tired of livin'. New York World.